Lake Erie Toxic Algae Bloom Info - June 2015

About a dozen charter boat captains scoop up Lake Erie water samples once a week for analysis at Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory.

Planktothrix, a microcystin-producing cousin, began growing in Lake Erie’s Sandusky Bay a few weeks ago, which is typical. The warmth and shallowness of water there promotes growth of planktothrix from May through October.

On Mon, Jun 15,2015, a Lake Erie charter boat operator spotted a small area of algae, about 3.5 miles northeast of the Toledo water intake.

The sample tested had a low concentration of microcystis, about 5 to 10 percent of all algae found in that sample. The concentration of microcystis was so low that scientists don’t even know if it’s producing the toxin microcystin yet. No amount of microcystin was found at Toledo’s water intake or the city’s Collins Park Water Treatment Plant.

Microcystis usually doesn’t develop in western Lake Erie until August. Over the past 20 years, microcystis has been spotted several times in July and at least once in June. It often starts out in the Toledo area, where the water is shallow and warm, and then it moves east to near the Lake Erie islands.

Because of the June 15 microcystis sighting, NOAA will move up its planned weekly sampling by three weeks. NOAA had planned on taking water samples twice in June, and then start its weekly regimen on July 6.

Both microcystis and planktothrix are toxin-producing forms of cyanobacteria, meaning they are genetically bacteria but commonly called blue-green algae because of their appearance and because of how they mimic algae.

Most of the June 15 sample contained diatoms, which are good forms of algae because they are part of the food chain that support fish. Later this summer, when microcystis peaks, samples will have 100 percent of that cyanobacteria or close to it,

Scientists hesitated to call the June 15 sighting an actual bloom, which is thick and fans out for miles. One NOAA researcher called this week's sighting a probable “scum patch.” The algae patch was too small to be captured by satellite images. Winds this week have dispersed the patch.

Microcystis became western Lake Erie’s dominant form of blue-green algae in 1995, and has held that distinction almost annually since.

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2015/06/18/Lake-Erie-microcystis-found-in-low-levels.html

http://www.wspd.com/articles/local-news-toledo-315557/less-severe-algal-blooms-expected-13681981/

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